Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Gill Fox

Here's a guy whose name I've seen before, but I didn't realize what a great and versatile cartoonist he was until I checked out one of my new favorite comic strip sites:http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search/label/Gill%20FoxFox did an amazing imitation here of Hank Ketcham's style. Did he work for Ketcham for awhile?Look how controlled and beautiful the layouts are. People could sure draw way back when!

Here's a funny 40s dirty style.

Here's a character Eddie told me about, "Peter Pain" and I thought he just made it up! What great ads. Doesn't this just make you crave pain and relief?I can't believe one guy can draw in so many styles.

These are great!Speaking of Amid, I'm working with him on his upcoming project! You know the one.

In reviewing your old blog entries, i caught your Preston Blair lessons from May 2006 (how did i miss these???) and I'm dedicating my life to these lessons.Feel free to check out the progress here:http://nosegoblins.blogspot.com/

I recall the Peter Pain character showing-up in some Kurtzman/Elder bits in the early magazine era of Mad, always wondered what his origin was... Ben Gay! perhaps this will illuminate further the parody in which I first spotted 'im. Nifty little critter, a Segar/Gould hybrid, no?

I really like the first couple ones, they have great composition and very few lines, also its quite loose.

You mention him as a master of many styles and i think over time i've been so afraid of committing to any one style that i've kept trying to be as versatile as possible. I wonder if you've ever had this feeling too?

You really struck gold with these i'd say, thanks for the upload and finally i'll add,

Peter Pain is the odd one out here, as he is not by Gill Fox, but by Jack Betts. I have more from him today.

The other ad is probably not by Fox as well, although he did draw in a similar style (as you can see in the steelworks strip from Boy's Life). I am still trying to figure out what part of these ad strips is by Fox, what part by Dik Browne, what part by cartoonist Roland Coe and there probably are a couple of others. Other influences to that style are the work of Chich Young (I should really some of his swinging late forties stuff) and Bill Haenigson (terribly bland, but very influential). In a couple of weeks I am going to ad some work by Bill Williams, who did ad work in a similar style. What really seperates Fox and Brown from the others, is their 'modern' sensibillities. To me Bumper to Bumper is the best of the lot, with Bless, the Mayer as a shortlived second. Wait for more early episodes of Hi and Lois, which also show how much ahead of it's time that strip was. They were doing Dick van Dyke Show material when everyone else was still doing I Love Lucy.

Hey Mr. K I recently stumbled upon your blog and damn I wish I found it sooner. It's very very informative. I'm a follower of the old toons such as Avery and Clampett and your blogs definitely do them justice. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind checking out this Itchy & Scratchy sequence I did for The Simpsons last season...http://Morpheus306.deviantart.com/art/Spherical-on-34th-St-70848305The director basically gave me free range to do what I want so I went wild with it. What do you think?